Oakland County prosecutors have charged three Pontiac residents with child abuse and torture after two “severely malnourished” children were hospitalized last week, in the second major child abuse case to surface in the city this month.
Prosecutor Karen McDonald charged Arturo Bazan, 43, his wife, Dulce Bazan, 42, and his adult son, Carlos Bazan-Hernandez, 24, with two counts each of first-degree child abuse and torture against two of Arturo Bazan’s children. All three offenses are punishable by up to life in prison.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Arturo Bazan’s 9-year-old child was taken to Trinity Hospital in Pontiac on Nov. 17 and went into cardiac arrest due to malnutrition. The child was suffering from liver failure and weighed just 33 pounds. Hospital staff also reported injuries on the child’s body consistent with abuse. Arturo Bazan’s 11-year-old child was also admitted and found to be malnourished, weighing 43 pounds.
The children told authorities they received less food than their two younger siblings, who are the biological children of both Arturo and Dulce Bazan, the prosecutor’s office said. The kids were withdrawn from school in September after the family told school officials they were moving, the prosecutor’s office said.
Attorneys for the Bazans and Bazan-Hernandez could not immediately be identified.
“It’s unconscionable that anyone, let alone parents, would willfully starve children,” McDonald said in a statement announcing the charges. “The allegations in this case are horrifying. My thoughts right now are with these children and the caregivers working to help them recover from what appears to be a nightmare situation.”
The charges come just days after another high-profile child abuse case in Pontiac. Teriomas Johnson was arraigned Nov. 12 on three counts of second-degree child abuse for allegedly leaving her children unattended in an apartment without working plumbing and in unsanitary conditions. Johnson is being held without bond after throwing a chair during her arraignment.
Earlier this year, Pontiac resident Kelli Bryant, 34, was charged with three counts of first-degree child abuse for allegedly abandoning her three kids in squalid conditions. Authorities in February said they discovered the children covered in feces, with toenails so long they struggled to walk. Bryant’s case is ongoing.
Violet Ikonomova is a reporter at the Free Press. Contact her at vikonomova@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 3 charged after Pontiac kids, 9 and 11, found ‘severely malnourished’
Reporting by Violet Ikonomova, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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